


Always

by tuesday



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-21 02:09:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17034468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: It took Venom days—weeks, really—to come back to himself.





	Always

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blindmadness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blindmadness/gifts).



> This is a Yuletide gift. I've redated for author reveals, as I didn't at archive open.
> 
> Happy Yuletide, blindmadness! You asked, "How does Venom get back to Eddie, after the explosion?" and I thought I'd give my answer of, "He doesn't; he's still there." Plus, well, porn. 
> 
> Thank you to Strozzzi for holding my hand through writing parts of this. You are the best secret keeper. ♥

Venom survived, but he slumbered, awake and aware at odd hours for seconds and then minutes at a time. A flash of hitting the water. Water sluicing off their body as Eddie pulled them ashore. The prick of an IV going in. Home and staring at the light of a mostly empty fridge. Water running down their face as Eddie rinsed soap out of their eyes.

Sometimes, he'd come into awareness to Eddie speaking, talking out loud to an empty apartment.

"Venom?" Eddie would say. "Still there?"

Venom would push back thoughts, feelings, anything he could to indicate _Yes_ and _Always_ in the seconds before he was dragged under again.

 

* * *

 

It took Venom days—weeks, really—to come back to himself. In the interim, Eddie dealt with the aftermath of the varied and assorted Life Foundation bullshit, figured out a proper diet now that he was eating for two, and found himself a new job. "Which is a good thing," Eddie said, apparently having fallen into the habit of talking to Venom whether he was awake to hear him or not, "because let me tell you, you are not a cheap date. I'm glad I figured out the chocolate thing, because I was getting really tired of sashimi, but—"

 _Eddie_ , Venom interrupted. Eddie jolted upright from where he was slumped over on the couch, pecking away at his laptop. _Hungry_.

Eddie slumped back over. Venom knew they'd had this same short conversation before, when Venom was weaker and in the grips of a healing hibernation, but he couldn't quite figure out how to reassure Eddie that he was more present this time, not when the hunger was so pressing, so consuming, that though Venom knew better (though Venom really didn't want to), he was tempted to eat Eddie's heart.

 _Hurry, Eddie_.

"Yeah, yeah." Eddie shoved aside the laptop and headed for the fridge. "Keep your shirt on. I've got leftover sushi, plus a bunch—and I mean a bunch—of chocolate in the cabinet. At least online no one can judge you for ordering in bulk."

Eddie had shoved the whole thing, still in the box it was delivered in, into the overhead cabinet. Venom encouraged Eddie to eat it all.

"You're getting bossier." Eddie's tone was one usually associated with complaining, but the primary emotion accompanying his words was relief.

Venom had picked up manners in his time crawling through Eddie's mind and memories. He used them. _Thank you, Eddie_.

Quietly, sincerely, Eddie said, "Any time, Venom."

Venom had a moment to savor his name in Eddie's mouth before oblivion insistently pulled him under once more.

 

* * *

 

The next time Venom came awake, it was to a veritable feast of chemicals Eddie's brain was putting out. They were in the shower again. This time, the water was beating down against their chest. Eddie had one hand around their dick and the other partly up their ass, fingers crooked against a particular spot inside.

_Eddie?_

"Shit." Eddie's hands spasmed as he came against the shower curtain. He hastily removed them both from his body, like Venom hadn't seen him do the exact same thing in a hundred memories from Eddie's life before Venom's presence in it.

 _Again_. The chemicals were even better now, but Venom still wanted more.

"That, uh. That's not happening, buddy." Eddie washed their hands with the body wash, then directed the shower head to rinse down the plastic curtain.

It was an effort to muster the energy when all he wanted to do was revel in the afterglow, but Venom had to know: _Why?_

"For one thing, it's not physically possible." Eddie's voice sounded bemused. His thoughts were in turmoil. Venom couldn't follow them. "There's this thing called a refractory period."

 _I can fix that_.

"I bet you can," and the shape of Eddie's thoughts had settled on interested, downright intrigued, but he continued, "some other day. I have a meeting in an hour."

It was just as well. Though Venom was growing stronger, he still needed rest.

 

* * *

 

Something had punched Eddie in the head, and Venom was out before he'd really processed what was happening, wrapping his protective form around their delicate human one. His teeth were bared. His claws were already striking down the threat. Little flakes of chocolate and cardboard went every which way, showering the kitchen in the corpse of the delivery box. The intact bars fell onto the counter and floor.

"Huh." Eddie did not sound particularly impressed. He felt like he was on the verge of laughter. "You know if we'd been in public, that would've been a disaster?"

Venom withdrew into Eddie, unable to hold his form without panic as his impetus. He could feel himself fading. _Not in public_.

Eddie tapped fingers over their chest. "Hey, Venom?"

_Yes?_

"Thank you for protecting me from the big, bad, scary box."

 _Any time_.

 

* * *

 

Eddie was asleep the next time Venom woke. Their body was relaxed. The tense lines in Eddie's forehead were smoothed out. He dreamed, confusing and confused. He slept on his back. One of his arms was at his side. The other was flung over his head. His shirt was rucked up around his chest. His belly was exposed.

Precious, Venom thought. Vulnerable.

Venom stayed awake until the sky began to lighten, watched over Eddie and made sure nothing disturbed his dreams.

"Venom?" Eddie asked, his voice rough with sleep, when his alarm went off and Venom flinched away. "Still there?"

 _Yes_ , Venom reassured him. _Always_.

Eddie straightened his shirt. He drummed their fingers against their chest as he gave a jaw-cracking yawn. The exhaustion he felt wasn't entirely his own, and he must have sensed it, because he smiled and said, "You don't have to be awake just because I am. I have some really boring meetings today. One of us should get to sleep through them."

 _Breakfast_ _first_.

Eddie's smile broke into a full-fledged grin. "Wouldn't want to miss it. Most important meal of the day."

 

* * *

 

"Hey, sleepyhead, wake up and give an opinion here."

Venom had the sense this wasn't the first time Eddie had called him. They were standing in the bodega. Eddie was staring through the closed freezer door. Bags of frozen potato products stared back at them.

Venom tried to shake off the lingering drowsiness. _Danger?_

"Nah. They're out of our usual. No tater tots left."

 _Unacceptable_ , was Venom's opinion.

Eddie snorted a laugh. They got an odd look from someone holding a can of green beans, but Eddie didn't seem to mind. "If you don't have an opinion, let's try hash browns. They're similar, if not the same."

 _But you do not like them as much_. Eddie's memories showed they were softer, didn't have the same crunch.

"Yeah, well." Eddie hefted the bag up, adding it to the small pile of assorted sundries in their arms. Venom struggled to stay awake, even if Eddie didn't need him anymore. "Maybe you will."

 _I like what you like, Eddie_.

Eddie picked up a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, too. "Because we have the same taste buds?"

 _Because I like you_. Venom wasn't sure how much sense he was making, was on the cusp of sleep once more.

Before he was pulled under, he was treated to Eddie smiling, small, but true, and to his quiet declaration, "I like you, too."

 

* * *

 

Venom was drowsy, but truly awake again, healed, if weak. He accompanied Eddie to interview and meetings, quietly observing. He watched Eddie make notes, type up articles. He gave opinions and did his best to alleviate the boredom that dragged at Eddie's heels at times.

"Not when I'm working," Eddie mumbled.

"Come again?" the woman on the phone said.

"That time works great for me," Eddie said, speaking more clearly and pretending like he hadn't spoken to Venom at all. Venom couldn't decide if this was irritating or endearing. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Looking forward to talking to a serial killer?" The woman's voice was full of doubt.

Eddie smiled, though Venom was the only one there to observe it. "What can I say? We journalists are a strange breed."

"I'll say."

Venom wanted to eat her. Eddie made a shushing motion as he concluded his conversation with meaningless human pleasantries. When he'd hung up, he glared in the reflective surface of the apartment's glass windows. "We don't eat people for being rude."

_She was disrespectful._

"She was agreeing with us." Eddie huffed a sigh. "Do we need to have the eating people talk again?"

Venom was less sure about where the line was that separated bad people from good, but Eddie knew enough for the both of them. _No_. If Eddie disagreed with Venom's assessment, he would speak up, like he just had. _But she should have been nicer to you_.

"This from the alien that called me a loser."

 _My loser, Eddie. It is_ —Venom thought back to their conversation earlier that week, when Eddie had the gall to call him a parasite as they left Mrs. Chen's bodega— _a term of endearment_.

"Aww." Eddie smiled. "You say that like I'll believe it any more than you did."

Eddie might not believe it, but it was true.

 

* * *

 

Something felt off. Eddie's skin didn't itch, but there was the prickle of something underneath, some need calling for attention. The cotton of Eddie's undershirt dragged against them on just this side of uncomfortable. Some strange energy bubbled up from within.

 _Something is wrong_.

"No," Eddie said in spite of the way every single hair stood on end as he dragged off his hoodie. "I'm just horny."

_Fix it._

"That, uh. We should probably talk about that?" Eddie didn't sound like he wanted to talk about it.

To be fair, Venom didn't want to talk about it, either. Venom, now that the problem had been identified, just wanted to strip Eddie down, press him to the nearest soft surface, and play with nerve endings until Eddie passed out or begged for mercy. He nudged toward Eddie the image of Venom manifesting a dozen tongues to lick him all over. It did not help. It made it worse.

"So you're on board with me masturbating while we're sharing a body?" Eddie seemed to think there was a difference between doing so when Venom had been sleeping and now, with Venom wide awake and aware of every moment of skin sliding against skin. "There _is_ a difference."

 _You are wrong_. Something in Eddie seemed to shrivel up, to collapse in on itself, before Venom continued, _It is not masturbation with two people_.

That something in Eddie began to unfurl again. It felt a lot like hope. "So you're saying you want to have sex with me?"

 _Yes. Very much_. Venom ran their hand up their chest, drummed their fingers in the spot Eddie had before, over the place where the feeling grew. _Is that enough talking_?

"I—" Eddie huffed a sigh like a laugh. "Yeah, sure. That's enough talking for now."

 _Good_. Venom didn't manifest the tongues, but he did push out several tendrils at the same time as he pulled off Eddie's undershirt. Eddie walked them to the bed as Venom flung the clothing at the hamper. Eddie undid his pants. Venom shoved them down. They were united in purpose stepping out of them and flopping onto the mattress. They hadn't done anything yet, but their body was putting off heat, blood gathering at their cheeks and in their dick.

"Could you—?" Eddie had barely formed a picture of Venom's face in his mind before Venom physically formed it in front of him. Eddie held a hand up, hesitant, and Venom leaned into it, went with it as Eddie pressed his lips to the blunt side of Venom's teeth. Eddie whimpered when Venom slid the tip of his tongue against Eddie's bottom lip. He moaned when Venom slipped his tongue in Eddie's mouth. He choked when Venom explored down his throat.  Eddie pushed him away, voice rough as he said, "I need to breathe."

"You do not."  Venom pushed his tongue back down Eddie's throat, felt just how much he liked it even as his pulse jumped uncomfortably.  Fear and arousal were a heady mix, but Venom explained, "I can breathe for you." Compared to rebuilding Eddie's heart when Riot's spear had obliterated it, absorbing and recirculating oxygen was trivial.  Dumping the oxygen into Eddie's body kept it from affecting Venom too much, and it felt only right that Venom rode the edge of danger, too.

The fear barely abated, but Eddie didn't push him away again. He opened up to Venom's tongue, to his touch, to the tendrils Venom trailed against his skin like exploratory fingers. Eddie spread his legs and pushed his hips up off the mattress to let one tendril underneath him after Venom spent a moment stroking the crease where his ass met his thigh. Eddie couldn't speak for Venom kissing him, but his every thought, his every action, was a chorus of _please, please, please_.

Eddie's heels scrabbled at the mattress as Venom turned this extension of himself a little more liquid and prodded curiously at his ass. The tendril— _tentacle_ , Eddie's thoughts insisted—slid right in, thinning in parts and leaving bits of itself behind as lubricant to ease the way. Eddie moaned pleasingly.

This wasn't quite what Eddie had expected. His thoughts had drifted toward giving himself a hand-job while Venom rode along. It wasn't quite what Venom had expected, playing actor and acted upon at once, feeling deeply every nerve stimulated and Eddie's overwhelming lust. It was—good. Better. Venom wrapped one of their hands around their dick so at least one of Eddie's expectations was met, and Eddie thrust up into it, then back down into the tentacle. It jolted against a bundle of nerves, a bright, sharp shock that went up their spine.

 _Again_ , and Venom could not tell who had thought it originally, but he was driven to obey, to thicken the tendril and rub it again, again, again against that spot even as Eddie tightened their grip. It danced the line between pleasure and pain, foot on one side, then the other. The pleasure was overwhelming. The pain was exquisite. It built on itself. It took Venom by surprise when it came crashing down, form sliding automatically to the formless. Eddie choked on his liquid body before Venom was able to draw back together. He actually swallowed a portion of Venom that he had to absorb back into their larger body.

 _We do not eat me_ , Venom thought with as much indignation as he could muster when he was half in Eddie's body and half in a shapeless puddle of goop slowly dripping from Eddie's skin.

"Maybe don't leave bits down my throat for me to choke on," Eddie said, voice rough, but thoughts radiating satisfaction. "I've always come down on the side of swallowing when I had the choice."

By the time Venom had regathered himself, Eddie had drifted off to sleep. Venom took Eddie's comment about swallowing and associated memories as permission to clean up what mess there was more directly than the washcloth Eddie sometimes used to rinse off. Eddie's reproductive product tasted as delicious as the rest of him, and this, unlike his liver, Venom was allowed to eat. When he was done, he curled a bit of himself over Eddie's chest, an extension of himself like a hand over Eddie's heartbeat. One of Eddie's hands came up to cradle there.

Venom didn't sleep, but staying close, treasured and cared for, was its own sort of dream.

 

* * *

 

"Venom?" Eddie asked on waking, voice hoarse with sleep. His hand twitched against the puddle extension of Venom resting against their chest. He smiled. "Still there?"

 _Yes_ , Venom promised. _Always_.

**Author's Note:**

> Blindmadness, I ended up mostly erring on the side of caution with the final version when it came to kinky elements (tentacles, yes; sort of breath play/Eddie choking on Venom's tongue, no). Please let me know if you'd like the original version, though it is pretty much this version with just a couple extra lines.


End file.
